Minnesota DNR's proposal could mean changes for bass regulation

The 2014 bass season opened the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, or two weeks after the walleye season traditionally begins, just as it has for decades.

For years, the idea behind the later start for bass anglers was to protect spawning bass, which spawn later than walleyes and northern pike, and minimize pressure on them when they are vulnerable.

But a new proposal offered by the Department of Natural Resources could allow two major changes to bass fishing regulations as early as next year.

If approved, fishermen will have a spring catch-and-release bass season statewide and will be able to keep smallmouth bass in the northeast part of the state during the fall.

Both are considered major changes to season framework for bass, and are based on data analysis by the DNR, and they seem to have the support of anglers.

The changes are intended to continue providing quality bass across the state, as well as additional fishing opportunities for them.

The proposed catch-and-release season during the spring would open a couple of weeks earlier than normal. It would coincide with the start of the walleye season.

The fall smallmouth harvest season in the northeast would be a switch from a rule implemented in 1998 that required all smallmouth bass to be released statewide after mid-September through the end of February.

Low-risk changes

According to Henry Drewes, DNR regional fisheries manager in Bemidji, the changes are "fairly low-risk" to smallmouth and largemouth bass populations.

With safeguards in place to protect spawning bass and maintain the quality of bass in the state, there are few concerns that the additional angling opportunities will have a negative effect on bass numbers.

"It's catch-and-release only and it will occur during the first two weeks of the pike and walleye season, and they receive the most pressure," Drewes said concerning the largemouth changes in the spring. "If we would have allowed catch and release for bass prior to the walleye opener, there would have been more opposition."

Drewes added that bass fishing tournaments will not be allowed during the catch-and-release season. Any bass caught during this period have to be immediately released, regardless of where they are caught until the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, which is the current start to the harvest season for bass.

With safeguards to protect spawning bass and maintain the quality of bass in the state, there are few concerns that more opportunities negatively affect fish numbers.(Photo: Courtesy of Traditions Media)

Smallmouth outlook

The opportunity to keep smallmouth bass in the northeast part of the state will be an exception to the regulation that shuts down smallmouth harvest throughout the rest of Minnesota in mid-September.

When the rule was implemented in 1998, people were concerned that smallmouth bass were too vulnerable to over-harvest in the fall. They tend to concentrate in large numbers prior to ice-on and are often easy to catch, which is why the entire state went to a fall catch-and-release-only season for smallmouth bass.

The proposal would allow smallmouth bass to be kept during the fall in all waters lying east and north of U.S. Highway 53 from Duluth to International Falls, and Pelican and Ash lakes in St. Louis County.

It will include the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA), a series of lakes that can be fickle for producing walleyes in the fall, and smallmouth could provide an otherwise negated opportunity for a shore lunch.

"We've consistently had requests from people on those fall canoe trips that wanted to harvest some smallmouth for consumption," Drewes said. "They'll be able to have that shore lunch, and with a very low risk to the smallmouth population."

Why change?

The expansion of bass populations across Minnesota and the changing environments they swim in are two of the driving forces behind the regulation changes.

Despite late ice-out the last two years, long-term trends indicate shorter winter seasons and warmer lakes, which have provided a shift to increasing bass and panfish populations in most areas of the state.

Eric Altena is the DNR fisheries supervisor in Little Falls and is a member of the state's Technical Bass Committee, and he said many more lakes have become warmer and more favorable for species such as bass and panfish so numbers of both are on the rise.

For example, smallmouth bass populations have exploded in most lakes across the northeast, and Altena said even largemouth bass numbers are expanding in the northeast, now showing up in lakes in strong numbers where they were pretty rare 10 to 15 years ago.

In reality, bass populations are so strong across the state that the proposed regulation could have been even more liberal. According to Altena, smallmouth and largemouth bass currently need very little protection.

"When you look at the facts, we have no recruitment issues with bass, and our electrofishing numbers are extremely high, and the changes will have no impact to that," Altena said. "We are way above recruitment in most parts of the state and most waters have an abundance of bass."

Bass not kept

In addition, smallmouth and largemouth bass only account for about 5 percent of all the fish caught and kept in Minnesota each year. The majority of bass are released and likely will continue to be under the new proposal, Altena added.

Recent angler surveys support the fact that very few bass are kept. Tournament and non-tournament anglers alike release most of their bass, with less than 30 percent of non-tournament bass fishermen indicating they keep the bass they catch.

"The proposal probably could have gone even more liberal, but there wasn't as much support for more liberal framework," Drewes said. "But we can do this and still protect the (bass) population statewide."

As it sits, the changes will be open to a 30-day public comment period and then reviewed by DNR staff before being submitted for final approval.

If adopted, the changes will become permanent and begin at the start of the 2015 fishing season.